RS

MEMBER DIARY

Entitlements?

The way I was raised, you were only entitled to what you worked for. In the old days, you were lucky to finish high school and get a job that would pay you a pension 20 or 30 years later. Today, many young adults have the opportunity to go to college and many of them throw it away by partying until they pass out. If you were poor and in trouble then a kind person or a charity organization would step in and help. If you were a business man, you took risks to earn a profit. If you were wrong, you paid the price of going out of business. If you worked hard and became rich, you had a nice lifestyle and if you were lazy you did paid the price. Today, we expect the Federal government to bail us out. President Kennedy once said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. The following is what you can do for your country.

Get away from the mentality that you are entitled to ride the gravy train without paying for a ticket.

Become knowledgeable about the issues that affect all Americans. Insist that political candidates tell you their specific plans to solve the issues they perceive as problems. Do not allow candidates to run negative ads.

Insist that every citizen we send to either a state or national office works for the common good of the state and the nation.

Demand term limits. Do not listen to the incumbents’ argument that it takes years to gain important committee chairmanships in order to affect policy. It is true that it takes many years to gain these positions, but the simple answer is to abolish all of these committees and subcommittees. If a single U.S. Senator introduces a bill, then the entire Senate should have the opportunity to vote on the bill. One committee chairperson should not have the power to prevent the bill from being voted on.